This “Minutemen” Fauquier County Leaders Tour will visit many of the most important historic homes and homesites, while hearing important detailed stories of Fauquier County’s “Minutemen” leaders along the way. The Culpeper Minute Battalion was like no other, as they were the only Minute Battalion in Virginia to fully form and then respond quickly and efficiently in a moment of critical need for Virginia.

Virginia historian Jim Bish and Battles of Hampton and Great Bridge military historian Pat Hannum will lead the tour. This Fauquier County Minutemen Leaders Tour will visit the Historic Elk Run Church site in telling the story of the important Keith-Randolph-and Marshall families. Five immediate family members, including the Marshall and Keith families, served significant leadership roles in the Culpeper Minute Battalion including Thomas Marshall and his son, John Marshall, who later served as the longest serving Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in history. After leaving Elk Run we will visit the homesite of Major Thomas Marshall and birthplace of Chief Justice John Marshall. We will then drive to Warrenton to visit the Martin Pickett’s “Paradise” home in telling about the important Pickett Family. After having lunch at O’Brien’s Irish Pub in Warrenton (Lunch is on your own) we will have a drive by visit to the Blackwell Family Cemetery. The Blackwell Family was the most important family in Fauquier County at the time and which many family relationships involve Culpeper Minutemen leaders. We will then head to see the rarely visited Major Thomas Marshall’s home called “The Hollow” near Markham where the Marshall family, including son John Marshall, lived from 1765-1773. We will then visit the Marshall home of “Oak Hill” where both Thomas and John Marshall were living when they went to join the Culpeper Minute Battalion in September 1775. The tour will continue by heading back towards Culpeper visiting along the route Capt. John Chilton’s Rock Spring homesite and Capt. James Scott’s Clearmont homesite before returning to the Museum of Culpeper History.

The Minutemen leaders from Fauquier County comprised unprecedented leadership, including future U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall and his father, Thomas Marshall. Other Fauquier County Minutemen were closely related to some of Virginia’s most influential political leaders of the day, including John Randolph, Peyton Randolph (selected to preside over both the First and Second Continental Congress), Edmund Randolph (first U.S. Attorney General), and future U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. Fauquier minutemen were ancestors to later American heroes, Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon (Marine Corps in Tripoli), CSA General George Pickett (Gettysburg), and General George Marshall (World War II).

Don’t miss the chance to visit the homes and homesites and to learn about Fauquier County’s heroes of 250 years ago by signing up for this one-time “The Road to Freedom Started Here: Fauquier County Minutemen Leaders Tour” on Wednesday, October 22, 2025. The tour will start at 9:00 a.m. from the Museum of Culpeper History, located at 113 S. Commerce St, Culpeper, and return by 4:30 p.m. The cost for the all-day tour is $50 with lunch at the O’Brien’s Irish Pub in Warrenton (Pay on your own), as we will be visiting both public and private historic sites associated with Fauquier County Minutemen Leaders. Don’t miss this only opportunity to learn about Fauquier County’s leaders who helped to create America.